


Solitude in Sunshine (Companionship in Moonlight)

by CelticxPanda



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: American Sign Language, Art School, F/M, Families of Choice, Foster Care, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Muteness, Original Character-centric, Rich Girls Being Nice, Running Away, Teenage Art School Ninja Girl Squad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28834734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticxPanda/pseuds/CelticxPanda
Summary: Running away from a shitty foster home was hard enough. Running away from a shitty foster home and right into the hands of the Foot Clan is when Soledad starts the think the universe just might have it out for her in particular. Luckily, she's got some new friends to help her navigate being a runaway kid in New York City with threats looming all around her.
Relationships: Casey Jones/April O'Neil/Original Female Character(s), Donatello (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s), Leonardo (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s), Michelangelo (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s), Raphael (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Grand Central Terminal

Soledad glanced over her shoulder one last time before stepping onto the train, tugging her hat down further over her eyes when she spotted a police officer. Heart pounding, she pushed her way into the crowded car, looking for a seat. Normally, she’d never think about taking an early commuter train into NYC, but people did a lot of things they’d never do for the sake of survival. She was getting out of Bridgeport, even if it killed her. 

And considering the circumstances, it just might.

She found a seat in a mostly-empty car, sitting with her stuffed backpack on her lap. She didn’t have much, but she was going to hang on to what she did have. She pulled out an envelope with her name written on it, counting the money inside. She didn’t know why Nancy, her foster mother, kept the state payments for each of the foster kids separate like she did, but it helped Soledad a great deal. Plus, this way she didn’t steal from the other kids in that wretched house. She only wished she could have taken some of them with her, but she didn’t want to drag them into what was likely going to end up as a life of the street. 

Whatever, anything was better than that hell hole. 

She stuffed the envelope back into her backpack, pressing her face into the rough fabric to hide from any passerby. Her head start should be pretty massive, considering Nancy and her husband, Robert, should think she’s at school right now. And it’d be a while before any of her teachers think to report her missing. The train to New York was less than two hours long, which left her plenty of time to get lost in the city. 

After that, she had no idea what she was going to do. She just had to live long enough to hit 18 so she could finally get at her inheritance. Two years on the street would be hard, but Soledad would do what she had to. The money in her envelope would at least keep her fed once a day for a few weeks. Maybe. She didn’t know exactly how far five hundred dollars would get her. 

Maybe she could find a youth hostel. Those were a thing, right? 

“Excuse me, young lady.” Soledad flinched back from the sudden tap on her shoulder, and the male voice that accompanied it. Looking up, she saw a rail officer standing over her, looking bewildered by her reaction. 

“Sorry about that, didn’t mean to wake you,” the officer said, tipping his hat. “I just need to check your ticket.”

Soledad nodded, reaching into her pocket to pull out her ticket. Her heart hammered against her ribs, her whole body tensed as she waited for the worst. The officer looked over her ticket before giving her a curious look. Soledad hoped she looked older than she did. 

“Everything looks good,” the officer said, handing back her ticket. “What’s a young lady like yourself doing traveling alone?” 

‘I was visiting family for a funeral,’ she signed, her hands flying as her nervousness made her stumble over her words. ‘I’m heading back to the city for school.’

The officer just stared at her blankly, clearly not understanding sign language. All the better, Soledad decided. Still, his stare made her nerves act up, the scars on her neck itching because of it. She scratched at them, drawing the officer’s attention to her neck. Understanding dawned on his face, and he looked terribly uncomfortable.

“Well, you have a good day then,” the officer said awkwardly before quickly making his way further down the car. 

One hurdle passed. Now for the rest of the race. 

Once she stepped out of Grand Central Station, it was easy enough for Soledad to get swept up in the crowded New York streets. She had no idea where she was going, but it didn’t matter. She just had to follow the flow of the foot traffic. 

Her stomach growled, clenching painfully. First thing first, she needed to find her some cheap food. She hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning (though that wasn’t unusual, Nancy never let her have breakfast), and she’d been denied lunch and dinner the past two days for coming home with an 89 on her math test. She was starving. 

It didn’t take her terribly long to find a little hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. She just had to walk in a straight line for a few blocks. It was still early, just around 10, so it wasn’t open yet. But Soledad could wait. She’d already gone two days, what was one more hour?

She leaned against the window, watching the crowd pass by. No one paid her any mind, and even those who spared her a glance didn’t seem to think much of her. She probably just looked like any other kid skipping school. Whatever her deal was, no one cared to make it their business.

Good, that was exactly what she wanted.

“Hey, kid!” Soledad jumped at the sound of someone yelling. She looked around, quickly finding a sour-looking man standing at the door of the pizza parlor she’d parked herself in front of. Soledad shrunk back from his scowl. 

“The hell do you want? We ain’t open yet!” the man barked.

‘Sorry,’ she signed. 

“Ah, one a those,” the man grumbled. He turned back into the restaurant, shouting, “Oi, Johnny! We got one of them signers. Come out here and help me.” 

A younger man with dark, messy hair rushed out, looking confused. The older man, probably the owner, turned to him. “Tell her we ain’t open and she needs to scram.”

‘I can hear!’ Soledad signed angrily. ‘I just can’t talk. I haven’t eaten in two days and I’m starving! I know you aren’t open. I was going to wait.’

“What do you mean you haven’t eaten in two days?” Johnny asked, ignoring the rest. He turned to the owner. “Boss, she says she hasn’t eaten in two days.”

The boss eyed her suspiciously. “Why haven’t you eaten, kid?”

Soledad signed, ‘My fake mother didn’t let me eat because I didn’t do well on a test. And she never lets me eat breakfast.’

“Fake mother?” Johnny asked, sounding both confused and distressed by the idea.

‘F-o-s-t-e-r mother,’ Soledad signed, spelling it out. ‘You use the sign for ‘fake’ for foster parents.’

“Seems kind of harsh,” Johnny said.

Soledad shrugged. ‘It suits them.’ 

“What’s going on?” the boss demanded.

“She says her foster mother didn’t let her eat because she did bad on a test,” Johnny explained. “I think she’s run away.”

Soledad said nothing, her hands going to grip the straps of her backpack. The boss sighed, running a hand over his thinning hair.

“Alright. I don’t give two shits about that runaway nonsense, but I can’t let a kid go hungry.” He turned towards the door, waving Soledad inside. “Get in. It’s cold out anyway.”

Soledad followed them in, signing her thanks. It really was a good deal warmer in the restaurant than it was outside. Soledad had been too caught up in the escape to notice before, but the October wind was enough to chill a girl to the bone.

“You picked quite a day to run away, eh,” the boss said, pulling out a blob of dough from a white tub. “Halloween. Some people might call it poetic.”

Soledad hadn’t even realized what day it was. She’d just decided last night that she was leaving in the morning. 

‘I didn’t even think about it,’ she signed. ‘I just knew I needed to leave.’ 

“Do you have somewhere to stay?” the boss asked, pouring sauce on the newly stretched dough. 

Soledad shook her head.

“Might be worth your while to find someplace,” he said, piling the pizza high with cheese before shoving it in the oven. “Beyond it being cold as hell at night now, Halloween is one of those days that just begs for trouble.” 

Soledad nodded. He was probably right. Even back home...before she ended up in the foster system, kids and adults alike would use Halloween as an excuse to do stupid, destructive things. A kid like her was an easy target.

‘I’ll keep that in mind,” she signed. 

The boss nodded after Johnny translated for him. A few moments later, he pulled a small pizza from the oven, piled high with gooey cheese. With a snap of his wrists, he had the thing carved in six even pieces. He slid the whole thing onto a handful of paper plates and slapped it on the counter.

“Eat up,” he ordered. Soledad made to pull out her envelope of money, but he shouted at her. “Nah, I don’t want none of that. The hell do you think I am? What kind of asshole takes money from a starving, runaway kid? Well, I tell you what. Joey Alberti ain’t that kind of asshole.” 

Soledad, for the first time in a while, felt relieved. What kind of miracle did she stumble upon that the first people she met in New York didn’t want to take advantage of her. She felt like crying.

‘Thank you,’ she signed. 

“Ahh, I know what that one means,” Joey Alberti said. He had a smile on his face now, a stark contrast to the sour expression he wore before. “Don’t mention it, kid.” 

Soledad felt like hugging the man, but that would be weird.

So she stuffed the still-steaming pizza in her mouth instead.

So. A problem.

None of the hostels would let her book a bed without some kind of ID. Nancy hadn’t let her take driving classes or get her license, and her birth certificate was locked away in a safety deposit box along with the rest of her paperwork. Like her inheritance, she couldn’t get to it until she was 18. So even if she was old enough to stay there on her own, she couldn’t prove it. 

And hotels were out of the question. Even if she was old enough to book a hotel room (which she wasn’t) they were too damn expensive. She’d lose most of her remaining money on a night’s stay. 

So, streets it was. At least until she could come up with something else. It was cloudy, and a bit on the cold end, which was only a sign of worse weather to come. Maybe that Joey Alberti guy could give her a job so she could earn money and rent a room from someone. Wait...how many hours did someone have to work in order to afford rent in New York?

Soledad passed by a narrow alleyway between some kind of giant office building and a rundown-looking gym of some kind. She paused, hearing a clattering sound deep in the shadowy passage. She stared into the darkness for a long second, waiting. No new noises followed the original caterwaul. Must have been a rat or something, she thought with a shrug. She moved on, not paying it much mind.

That is, until half a block later when she got the sinking feeling someone was following her. She glanced over her shoulder, trying not to make it obvious. A couple of guys were just a few paces behind her, looking like they’re dressed to go to a dojo in some 80s martial arts movie. Even their faces were covered. Soledad felt the cold claw of dread grip her stomach. 

At the first opportunity, she bolted down a side street, backpack bouncing as she ran. Screw finding a place to hunker down for the night, she needed to lose these assholes first. All she had to do was zigzag a bit through the city. No big deal, right?

Well, it wouldn’t be if the first alleyway she turned down wasn’t a dead end. 

Soledad hissed a curse under her breath, her vocal chords protesting slightly. She looked this way and that, begging God for some kind of escape. There was a fire escape, but that’d do nothing but trap Soledad up on a rooftop. 

“Well, well.” Soledad whipped around, seeing her pursuers had not only caught up to her already, but had multiplied. Instead of two or three, there were now something like twelve ninja-looking guys. One of them in a bit more ornate ninja costume stepped forward. He spoke again, “Little mouse thinks she can see the Foot Clan and just walk away.” 

“I didn’t see!” She shouted, her voice coming out as nothing more than a whispered rasp. Her throat burned at the attempt at speaking. “I didn’t see anything!” 

“Even if you say so, that’s not a chance we can take,” the ninja leader said, pulling out a wicked looking dagger. “So sorry, child.” 

Soledad flinched, hiding her face behind her arms as she waited for the pain. But it never came. Instead, there was the strangely muted sound of conflict. She lowered her hands, finding four strangely shaped shadows taking down the small army of ninja. The cloud cover cleared overhead, and Soledad saw green.

Four green turtle men were fighting off the ninjas. Soledad pressed her back up against the wall, fear making her knees weak as she tried to process all of this. Turtles. Mutant Turtle Ninjas. Were fighting human ninjas who wanted to kill her. Human ninjas who wanted to kill her for supposedly seeing them. Which she did not, in fact, see them. But they wanted to kill her anyway.

She should have stayed in fucking Bridgeport.


	2. Metro Sewer System

“Jesus, Mikey, why’d you have to bring another one down here?”

“The Foot was after her, Raph, we couldn’t just leave her! Besides, she fainted!” 

Soledad was aware of three things. One: it was much warmer now than it had been previously. Two: the ground was surprisingly soft, meaning she was likely not actually on the ground. And three: there were people talking. She wondered if she should just pretend to still be unconscious. If she kept pretending, she could wait until the people talking had left and make her escape. But escape to where? The cold October streets where she’d almost gotten murdered? She didn’t think so. 

She opened her eyes, catching a blurry vision of purple and green. Wait. Green?

She jolted up, her forehead colliding with the face of whatever it was that hovered over her. She hissed at the pain, clutching at her head. That fucking hurt. 

“Oh, hey, she’s awake.” 

“Gee,” a pained voice groaned, “I hadn’t noticed.” 

Soledad slowly lowered her hands from her face, turning to see who exactly had supposedly ‘rescued’ her. Or kidnapped her. Same difference at this point. 

She felt her stomach drop when her eyes focused once more on four anthropomorphic turtles. Each of them wore some kind of mask or bandana across their eyes in a different color...like that was going to hide their identities. Seriously, they were anthropomorphic turtles! At this point, the only thing the masks were good for was telling them apart. Still, this meant she hadn’t been seeing things before. They were real. 

Or she was tripping on something. Or dreaming. 

She pinched herself. Nope, that hurt. Not a dream. 

Well. Shit. 

The purple one she’d headbutted on accident stepped forward, sending Soledad scrambling over the back of the couch she’d woken up on. Where was her backpack? Didn’t matter. She had to get out of here!

“Hey! Don’t freak out. It’s okay!” 

‘Don’t freak out’ her ass. How the hell was she supposed to not freak out when it came to mutant turtles? 

She made to stand, but suddenly found her way blocked by the turtle in orange. She glanced to the sides, thinking maybe she could get around him. But those routes were blocked by the turtles in purple and blue. Back over the couch, then? Nope. Looking back as a shadow fell over her, Soledad found the back of the couch covered by the turtle in red. She was trapped. 

Just like earlier in the alley. And in the foster house in Bridgeport. And in the hospital after her surgery. And in the car during the accident, as metal cut into her throat. 

She was always, always trapped.

Her wailing sobs came out as nothing more than raspy wheezing as she curled in on herself, fat tears falling down her face. Her vocal chords protested strenuously, the pain only making her cry harder. 

“Guys, back off,” one of them said. “We’re freaking her out.” 

“What’s with her voice?” another asked. “Humans don’t normally sound like that.” 

“What the heck are you guys doing?!”

A woman’s voice? The surprise was enough to startle Soledad out of her weeping. She looked up, watching the blurry form of a human woman approaching. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to banish her tears. They were stubborn bastards, though, and no matter how much she tried to wipe them away, they kept coming. 

“We saved her from the Foot,” one of the turtles explained. “She fainted, so Mikey brought her with us.”

The woman kneeled down in front of Soledad, smiling gently. Her face was framed by a halo of kinky-curly red hair, and her hot cocoa cheeks were covered in freckles. She looked nice, but that didn’t mean anything. Soledad knew that from experience. “Hey there. I’m sorry about my friends. I’m April. What’s your name?”

‘S-o-l-e-d-a-d,’ Soledad signed, spelling it out. She didn’t have a special sign for her name yet, like she knew a lot of people did. 

April’s face took on that pitying look most people gave her when she started signing at them. “You can’t speak?”

‘It’s painful,’ Soledad signed. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying,” April apologized. 

The turtle in purple spoke up. “She says it’s painful.”

All eyes in the room went to the turtle in purple. Soledad was shocked to say the least. Most people barely knew the basics when it came to Sign Language. How did a turtle living in the sewers learn?

“You know what she’s saying, Donnie?” April asked. 

So the turtle in purple’s name was Donnie? Soledad wondered which one was Mikey then. Another one was Raph; she’d heard one of them say that name earlier, when she was first waking up. 

“I know a little bit,” Donnie admitted. “I do a lot of random research when I’m bored. I can’t really ‘speak’ it myself because, well…” He held up a hand, revealing that the turtles only had three fingers on each hand, including the thumb. “But I can understand it.” 

April nodded, turning back to Soledad. “Would it be okay if my friend came closer?” 

Soledad glanced between April and Donnie, unsure. They hadn’t hurt her. In fact, they’d saved her from the ninjas that had been trying to kill her. That made them the good guys, right? She scratched nervously at the scars on her neck. 

“Oh shit,” the turtle in red whispered loudly. “Look at her neck. Explains the voice.”

Soledad curled into herself in embarrassment, pulling her jacket tighter around her neck and shoulders. There was a quick slap sound, followed by the red one yelping in pain. 

“Dude, don’t be rude!” the turtle in orange scolded. Soledad glanced his way, her gaze met with a bright smile. 

She turned her attention back to April and Donnie, and she nodded. He approached, kneeling next to April to make himself as small and non-threatening as possible. It didn’t necessarily make Soledad feel any better, but she did appreciate the effort. 

“You said your name was...Sollidade?”

Soledad shook her head. It would be hard to explain the pronunciation of her name through sign, so she figured it was better to just deal with the pain and say it out loud. “Soledad.”

“Soledad,” Donnie corrected himself. “My name is Donatello. These are my brothers Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.” He gestured to the turtles in blue, orange, and red in turn. 

‘M-i-k-e-y,’ Soledad signed, pointing to Michelangelo. ‘And R-a-p-h.’ She pointed to Raphael. ‘I heard you say their names earlier. I was wondering who was who.’

Donatello nodded, smiling slightly. “That’s right. The people me and my brothers saved you from are called the Foot Clan. Do you know why they wanted to kill you?”

‘They thought I saw them. But I didn’t!’ Soledad shook her head emphatically. ‘I told them, but they didn’t believe me.’ 

“What were you doing out on the streets this late at night, anyway?” he asked. “You’re still in school, right? Shouldn’t you be at home?”

Soledad frowned, her gaze falling away from the two gentle faces in front of her. 

‘I ran away from my foster family,’ she signed. ‘They were mean to me. Wouldn’t let me eat.’ 

Confusion, followed by heavy silence as Donatello translated for everyone else. A heavy hand settled on her shoulder. She looked up to see not a turtle, but an anthropomorphic rat standing over her. She probably should have been shocked and horrified, but all the other weirdness today had sort of numbed her to any other surprises.

“You,” the rat said, “will stay here from now on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Now Soledad's journey really begins! I hope y'all like her, because I adore her! If you're wanting to know how my baby looks, you can go to this tweet here: [Soledad](https://twitter.com/thecelticpanda/status/1353019114713985026?s=20)


	3. Ellis Island

Soledad was impressed with how fast the turtles got a space prepared for her. They procured her own little tunnel for her, hanging some worn curtains across the opening to give her some modicum of privacy in this very not-private sewer. 

A sewer. She was going to live in a sewer for the next two years. With mutant turtles and their dad, who was a rat. This certainly wasn’t what she expected, but she couldn’t say she was mad about it. At least the sewer was warmer than the streets. Probably. 

“Hope you don’t mind a hammock,” Leonardo said, carrying in a large mound of fabric. “It’s all we have down here.”

‘I’ve never slept in one,’ she signed. ‘Should be interesting.’

Leo just sort of smiled blankly. “I’ll get it hooked up, then.”

Soledad frowned a little. This, of all things, shouldn’t have surprised her. Communication was going to be rough until either some kind of miracle happened and she regained her ability to speak without pain, or the rest of the turtles learned sign language. 

Still, it sucked. 

She stood at the opening of her ‘room,’ her eyes passing over the expansive underground lair. Down below, she could hear April and Splinter, the rat man, talking about her. 

“We can’t just not have her go to school,” April was saying. “She’ll need at least a high school diploma if she wants to live a normal life.” 

“I understand, O’Neil-san,” Splinter agreed. “But we do not have the means to enroll her in any school.” 

“I’ll worry about getting her in,” April insisted. “You worry about keeping her in.” 

Someone tapped Soledad on the shoulder, causing her to flinch. She turned, seeing a sheepish looking Leonardo standing there. She felt bad, being so skittish, but months in an abusive household would do that to you. 

“Sorry,” he said. “I just wanted to let you know I finished with the hammock.”

‘Thank you,’ Soledad signed, making sure to mouth the words as well. She hoped that helped with communication. Ninjas could read lips, right?

Even if ninjas generally couldn’t, the way Leonardo’s face lit up with understanding made it appear that he could. 

“You’re welcome,” he said. There was a pause, and then he asked, “How do you say that in sign?”

Soledad spread her hand open, fingers away from each other, and tapped her thumb against her chest. While this wasn’t exactly how one said ‘you’re welcome,’ it was how her teacher had taught her when she was first learning how to communicate. Technically, it meant ‘fine,’ but the turtles didn’t necessarily need to worry about that. 

Leonardo nodded in understanding. He mimicked her earlier, saying thank you in sign. While it wasn’t necessary, Soledad appreciated it.

“You seemed distracted,” he noted. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

‘April and Splinter were talking about sending me to school,’ Soledad signed, making sure to mouth the words as well. At least Leonardo would be easy to communicate with. ‘I was listening in on their conversation.’

Leonardo chuckled a little. “Very ninja of you.”

She shrugged. ‘I just don’t know how they’re going to pull it off...at least not without my foster family finding out where I am.’

Leonardo frowned. “You’re right.” He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Come with me. We should talk about this.”

If Soledad could sputter, she would as Leonardo dragged her down towards the bottom floor of the sewer lair. He gathered the other turtles as he went, and the five of them approached Splinter and April together. Soledad felt royally embarrassed. She hadn’t meant to cause a fuss. 

“What is wrong, my sons?” Splinter asked.

“Dad, how will we be able to hide Soledad from her foster family if we put her in school?” Leonardo asked.

“He has a point,” Donnie added. “Whatever school you put Soledad into will ask questions when they receive her records, and ask even more if we provide no evidence that she’s been previously educated.” 

Raphael nodded, crossing his arms. “Meaning someone’s gonna find out she’s here.” 

“And we can’t let that happen!” Michelangelo shouted, being far louder than he probably needed to. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Soledad signed. ‘I didn’t mean to cause a fuss, but I heard you talking about it.’

Splinter and April shared a look. Soledad wondered if they hadn’t even considered the thought of her foster family finding her through the school. Most people probably wouldn’t think of it. Soledad wasn’t even sure if April could enroll her anywhere since she wasn’t her legal guardian or anything like that. 

A warm hand settled on her shoulder, and when Soledad looked up, April met her worried gaze with a warm smile. 

“You don’t worry about a thing. I know exactly what to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but I hope that's alright. We stan ninja turtles being protective of their new friends uwu


	4. The Bronx Zoo

April let Soledad stew in her anxiousness for a few days. Granted, she probably thought that by not involving Soledad, she was making her less anxious. Didn’t work like that, but Soledad could appreciate the thought. 

Instead, Soledad spent most of her time holed up in her room, at least when Michelangelo wasn’t pulling her down to the kitchen to shove food at her. Seemed to be that the minute she said she hadn’t been fed properly, the youngest(?) turtle took it upon himself to make sure she was never hungry. Like, ever. Mikey wasn’t a bad cook at all, considering the circumstances, so Soledad couldn’t say she minded. She was honestly pretty surprised. She figured living in a sewer would make things like cooking food not covered in mold hard. Apparently not. 

‘How did you learn to cook so well?’ Soledad asked. She had to make sure Donatello was with her when she talked to Mikey, or Raphael for that matter. Seemed Leo was the only one who was able to read lips. 

“I watch a lot of Food Network,” he said with a shrug.

Soledad blinked owlishly at that explanation. They got tv down here? How’d they manage that?

Mikey and Donnie chuckled at her confused expression. 

“Donnie is a whiz with any kind of tech,” Mikey explained, making Soledad wonder who the heck actually said ‘whiz’ anymore. “He’s got us set up with everything down here!” 

‘Impressive,’ Soledad signed, and she didn’t just mean that as flattery. Getting something like cable working down in the sewers of all places was a feat in and of itself. And here she thought she was impressive for being able to install a second monitor and get that working.

“Well, thank you,” Donnie said with a smile, accepting the compliment graciously. “I do what I can.” 

Raph stuck his head into the kitchen, looking a little sour (but then again he always kind of looked a little sour). “Donnie, Mikey. Training.” 

The two turtles immediately jumped up from their seats, muttering apologies to Soledad as they left. Soledad found herself alone, which is how she found herself a lot recently. Even with the surprising number of people in her new sewer home, she found herself on her own more often than not. Training seemed to take up a lot of the turtles’ time, and when they weren’t training they were patrolling.

That seemed to bewilder Soledad the most. Even though they needed to hide from everyone, they still went up to the streets to...fight crime or whatever. Not that she was complaining; they’d saved her life after all. It just seemed like a weird incongruency in their values: stay hidden, but also go be superheroes. 

Well, she supposed everyone needed a hobby. Even if they were giant anthropomorphic terrapins. 

Well, ‘giant’ was a stretch. Raphael was the only one she could really call ‘giant.’ The rest of them were only around her height, and she wouldn’t exactly call herself tall.

Still, she was curious about this training they all did. It had to be some wicked cool ninja stuff, right? Maybe she could get in on some of that. It wasn’t like she could just distract herself with endless scrolling on her phone. Not until she got a new one, at least. 

Nancy and Robert had a tracking device on hers. Didn’t work if she didn’t turn it on, but the point still stood.

Maybe she could get Donnie’s help removing that…

Too full to keep eating and too curious to keep still, Soledad shoved the rest of her food in the fridge haphazardly and made her way down deeper into the lair. She hadn’t seen most of it in the few days she’d been living there. Mostly just her room, the kitchen, and the giant middle section that made up the living room. She hadn’t seen any of the turtles’ rooms, and she wasn’t even sure Splinter actually slept, let alone where he went to do so if he did. Not that she really needed to see their bedrooms. They were, as far as she could tell, teenage boys. Their rooms were bound to be kinda gross. 

Wandering about, Soledad found herself following the quiet noises of a struggle. The noises led her to a large room off the main level, where she saw Raphael and Leonardo circling each other on a slightly elevated platform while Splinter, Michelangelo, and Donatello watched on. She slipped into the room, standing right inside the open arch into the room, watching. 

Certain movements were too fast for her eyes to follow, all she could do was listen for the sound of an impact. Neither Leonardo nor Raphael seemed superhumanly fast (or maybe they were, but that wasn’t the point of the exercise so they weren’t trying), but they were certainly faster than Soledad. Ironic, considering they were turtles. 

Still, it made Soledad feel kinda weird. She didn’t normally like thinking badly about people, but she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if she could pull off moves like that. Would she have been able to fight back against Nancy and Robert if she knew ninja stuff like the turtles did? Could she have defended herself from those ninja who had been trying to kill her?

Well, probably not that last one. There’d been way too many of those. Still, Soledad felt bad thinking about it. Even if she did hate Nancy and Robert, and her time in their so-called care, she couldn’t just expect beating them in a fist fight to change anything. 

It’d be hella cathartic, though. 

Eventually, Raphael had Leo pinned to the mat, using his larger body mass to his advantage. Splinter called for the bout to end. 

“What’s more,” he said, “we have a guest.” He turned to Soledad, who didn't know he realized she was there. She waved awkwardly as four more sets of eyes turned her way. 

‘Sorry,’ she signed. ‘I can leave…’

“No need,” Splinter said, his voice taking on a jovial tone. “I cannot fault you for being curious. Come, sit, sate your curiosity.” 

Soledad sat on the floor next to Donatello, hugging her knees to her chest. She hadn’t really wanted to call attention to herself, but it seems she didn’t need to call for attention to be brought to her. She watched as Splinter called for Michelangelo to spar with Raphael next, Leonardo walking off the platform to plop himself down where Mikey once sat. 

“Were you interested in learning?” 

Soledad jumped at the sudden question. She mentally berated herself for doing so, hating how scittish she’d become. Donatello simply sat there, waiting for an answer.

‘I was curious,’ she signed. ‘But I don’t think I should learn it.’

“Why not?” he asked, drawing the attention of Leonardo and Splinter.

Soledad frowned, unable to meet their eyes. ‘I think I’d use it to hurt people. In revenge, I mean.’ 

“Revenge?” Donatello echoed. “You mean on your foster family?”

Soledad nodded. Everything she’d ever heard about martial arts said it was about self defense, not revenge or power or anything like that. And these guys lived and breathed that sort of thing, didn’t they? They were ninjas, after all. 

“I mean, I don’t really see anything wrong with that.”

Soledad’s head snapped in the direction of the sparring match, which had either stopped short or never really got started. It was Raphael who’d said it, casual as a favorite pair of sweatpants. 

“Raphael,” Splinter said, his voice full of warning. 

“What? Look at her! She’s a bundle of nerves wrapped up in a blanket of anxiety. And I bet you at least half of that is ‘cause of those people she ran away from. They have it comin’ if you ask me.” 

Soledad shook her head, hair flying. ‘No! No! No! I don’t want to want to hurt anyone!’ 

Wanting to hurt people turned you into someone like Nancy and Robert. And that was the last thing Soledad wanted to be. The very idea filled her with dread.

“Soledad.” She looked up to see Splinter kneeling before her, his expression gentle. “It is good that you do not wish to hurt those who have hurt you.”

‘You don’t understand,’ Soledad signed. ‘I do want to hurt them. But I don’t want to want to hurt them. Does that make sense?’ 

Splinter nodded sagely as Donatello translated. “I see. I understand your hesitation. But, perhaps this kind of training is exactly what you need. You fear learning because you believe power will corrupt you, because the only people in your life who have had power have used it to hurt you. 

“But power itself is not the problem, Soledad, but the desires of those who have it. The fact that you are repulsed by your desire to harm another speaks volumes. You are already far greater than those who have harmed you. Perhaps, though, it would do you well to learn to defend yourself. If nothing else, it will give you a greater sense of confidence in yourself.” 

Soledad wasn’t really sure about that, and it must have shown on her face. Splinter simply smiled, patting her on the shoulder.

“You have plenty of time to decide. Now. I believe I said it was time for Michelangelo and Raphael to spar.” 

Soledad was still trying to decide three days later when April turned up with a brand new backpack that she proceeded to chuck at Soledad’s head. 

“Guess who got you into one of the best schools in New York,” April shouted cheerfully, totally different from the gentle demeanor she had before. 

‘You?’ Soledad signed, playing along.

“That’s right! The Salinger-Melville School for Education in the Arts!” April beamed, looking proud of herself. “I don’t know if you’re necessarily an artsy kid, but it’s still a damn good school.” 

Soledad shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t say I have talent or anything like that.’

“Neither do half the kids in the school,” April admitted. “Their parents bought their way in, like they do with any fancy school in New York.” 

“Okay, but how did you get her in?” Leo asked, toeing the line between curious and incredulous. 

“Turns out the SM-SEA is big into charity scholarships,” April explained, plopping herself down into one of the kitchen chairs. “I just had to tell them Soledad was a mute orphan and they bent over backwards to get her enrolled. They do need to know what school you went to back in...where ever you were before.”

‘B-r-i-d-g-e-p-o-r-t,’ Soledad signed. ‘I went to the Central High School.’ 

“Cool. One last thing,” April said, pulling out a few forms. “What’s your last name?”

Soledad tugged at the end of her new uniform dress, trying to get it down farther over her knees. The cashmere fabric was warm and surprisingly light, but what good was it if it didn’t go down to cover what her socks didn’t? It was November, for God’s sake. 

At least the school also provided a coat. 

Soledad trudged towards the glass monolith that was her new school, following April through the slush of days-old snow. Seemed fancy schools had two modes in New York: ultra-modern skyscrapers and decrepit old manors. There was, as far as she could tell, no inbetween. 

She still wasn’t sure how the hell April was able to get her enrolled in the first place, since April was far from her legal guardian. Well, as far as Soledad was aware April hadn’t gotten herself appointed her legal guardian. She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to do that, but the foster system was weird as hell. 

They had to wait at the door until security buzzed them in. Once through the door, they were immediately greeted by a perky secretary-type lady in heels so tall they gave Soledad vertigo. 

“Welcome to SM-SEA, you must be Soledad,” the woman said with a smile, reaching out to take Soledad’s hands. “I’m Mrs. Hudson, and I’m in charge of enrollment and student orientation. How are you?”

Soledad just smiled nervously. She couldn’t answer without her hands and Mrs. Hudson seemed adamant on not letting go. She looked April’s way, who just gave her a shrug of solidarity. 

Mrs. Hudson pulled her along, rambling on about the history of ‘this great institution,’ but Soledad was more focused on the fact that this woman was still touching her. What kind of lady was this? She was 16, she could walk without someone holding her hand!

April, clearly sensing her distress, spoke up. “Mrs. Hudson, I think you should let go now.” 

Mrs. Hudson, however, continued to ramble on, either unable to hear April, or unwilling to. Soledad tugged at her hand, hoping to pull herself free, but Mrs. Hudson’s hold was ironclad. Soledad’s hand was starting to get sweaty from the tight, unyielding heat of Mrs. Hudson’s grip. 

The woman ended up dragging Soledad into her office, where she physically sat her down across the desk from her. April took a seat next to her, patting her shoulder comfortingly as Soledad flexed her hand. 

“Now, Soledad,” Mrs. Hudson said, sitting in her own large desk chair. “We’ve got most of your schedule figured out, but there’s a few slots that still need to be filled, and we need your input for them.

“As you know, this is an art institution. What kind of art are you looking to pursue? Most of our students specialize in some kind of visual or performing art, but we also have courses for literary and culinary arts, if that’s something you want to go into. Our journalism program is highly praised. But I bet a pretty young woman like yourself would want to go into performing arts! Dance, maybe? Should I put you in dance? Let’s put you in dance!”

‘Why would you ask me what I want and then just decide for me?!’ Soledad signed angrily. 

Mrs. Hudson blinked owlishly at her. “I don’t know what you just said, young lady, but it didn’t seem very polite.” 

April sat up straighter as Soledad’s hackles rose. “Mrs. Hudson, do you not have an interpreter here for Soledad? I know her file lists her conditions, you should have been more prepared. If this is how your school treats its students, I might just have to take her to another school. And who knows, it might just come out to the press how horribly you handle your scholarship students.”

Mrs. Hudson paled at the threat. “No no. That won’t be necessary. Just a moment, we have an interpreter on standby. Wait right here.”

She scurried off through a side door, and Soledad breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Thank you,’ she signed to April. 

‘You’re welcome,’ April signed back. 

They sat in silence for a few long minutes before Mrs. Hudson came back in, this time followed by an older gentleman in a suit and a young woman not much older than Soledad.The young woman held something in her hand that Soledad couldn’t quite make out. 

“Good morning, Ms. O’Neil,” the man said, reaching out to shake April’s hand. “It’s good to see you again. I’m Principal Huntington, we met briefly last time.”

April nodded. “I remember.” 

“What seems to be the problem?” Mr. Huntington asked. “Mrs. Hudson seemed quite distressed.”

‘She asked me what I wanted for my classes and then just started deciding for herself,’ Soledad signed sharply. ‘She doesn’t listen! And I don’t just mean to me! She wouldn’t listen when April told her to let go of me.’

The young woman turned to Mr. Huntington. “She’s upset because Mrs. Hudson was trying to make decisions for her. She says that Mrs. Hudson asked for her input, but then started deciding things on her own.” She turned back to Soledad. “What did she want you to take? And what do you want to take?”

‘She said I was pretty so I had to want to perform. She was all set to put me in dance!’ Soledad signed, feeling about ready to scream. ‘Someone’s looks should not be used to determine what they take classes in!’

The young woman relayed her rant to Mr. Huntington, who nodded. “You’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry that the actions of our staff upset you. I hope you’ll give us a chance to make it right.”

Soledad glanced at April, unsure of what other choice they had. 

“What classes do you want to take?” Mrs. Hudson asked cautiously. 

Soledad honestly wasn’t sure. She wasn’t much of an artist, save for doodling in her notebook. She didn’t know how to play any instruments, and she certainly couldn’t be in any plays. Dancing was right out even if she had wanted it, purely because Mrs. Hudson’s actions had tainted it. She supposed that left writing.

‘I want to write,’ she signed. ‘Creatively, not as a reporter.’ 

“Creative writing,” the interpreter said. Then, she held out the item in her hand: a small device with a large speaker and a small screen and keyboard. It reminded Soledad of old smartphones, before they got rid of slide out keyboards. 

“You’ll be using this device to communicate with your classmates and teachers,” she said. “You’ll type out what you want to say and it’ll say it for you.” 

Soledad frowned. Devices like these were expensive, but they also made communicating slow. There was a reason she decided against dealing with them when she first started to live in a reality where she couldn’t readily speak. Whatever, she wasn’t the one paying for it. 

She stuffed it in her coat pocket, signing her thanks.

Mrs. Hudson handed her two printouts. One was a map of the school, and the other was her schedule. It had the usual math, science, and social studies on there, but instead of a normal english class, her schedule was full of classes like ‘An Exploration of Genre’ and ‘Storytelling 101 - Short Stories and Novellas’. But, there was one class that stood out to her as something she distinctly did not ask for.

‘Why do I have a fashion design class on here?’ she asked. 

The interpreter asked Mrs. Hudson the same question. Mrs. Hudson looked sheepishly from Soledad to the interpreter to Mr. Huntington.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a space open in any other classes in the creative writing course. She needed a 5th period, so I filled it with the only class that had an open space. It’s an introductory class, mostly focused on history of style. She could think of it as a history class. It was either that or dance.” 

‘Anything but dance.’ Soledad scowled, but accepted the explanation. It wasn’t Mrs. Hudson’s fault if classes were full. At least she didn’t take the opportunity to shove her in a dance class. 

“I’ll walk you to your first class,” Mr. Huntington offered. He then turned to April. “Thank you very much for your time, Ms. O’Neil. I’m sure Soledad will come home with some good stories from today.”

April gave Soledad an unexpected hug. “You have a good first day. Don’t take shit from anyone.”

Mrs. Hudson made an offended noise, but kept her mouth shut once Soledad shot her a glare. Taking a deep breath, she waved goodbye to April before following Mr. Huntington further into the building.

Somehow, this was way more stressful than living in the sewer.

Her first class of the day was biology, apparently. It was on the first floor, which made things a little easier. The building was so tall it needed escalators and elevators to get everywhere. Soledad had the sinking feeling she was going to get very lost very fast. Thank god for the map.

Mr. Huntington knocked on the door, waiting only a moment before opening it up. The teacher, an older gentleman in a bowtie and suspenders, smiled warmly when he spotted Soledad hiding behind the principal. 

“Mr. Nguyen, this is Soledad de Azahar. She’s a new student just starting today. Mrs. Hudson should have sent you an email about her accommodations.”

“I did see that, yes,” Mr. Nguyen said with a nod. “It’s good to meet you, Soledad. Why don’t you come in and take a seat. I believe there’s an open chair in the front with Vienna. Vienna, raise your hand so Soledad can find you.”

A young woman with ashy pink hair that never would have been allowed at Soledad’s old school raised her hand with a bright smile. Soledad shuffled over, hanging her coat and backpack over the back of the tall chair. 

The girl leaned towards her as she hopped up onto the chair, beaming brightly. “Hi! I’m Vienna. You’re Soledad, right? It’s nice to meet you!”

Soledad simply smiled and nodded, unsure if she wanted to reveal her condition as of yet. She felt weird, being around all these normal kids after spending a little over a week down in the sewers. Donnie had a shower set up for her that used clean water and the like, but she still felt like everyone could smell the sewer on her. 

That tiny sense of dread settled in her stomach, taking root during class. It made it hard to concentrate on what Mr. Nguyen was saying. Something about evolution. 

“Soledad.”

Her head shot up, eyes wide, at the sound of Mr. Nguyen calling her name. 

“Name something that could be considered an evolutionary advantage.”

Soledad pulled out her device, typing as quickly as she could, though that just led to spelling mistakes that she then had to go back and fix. The longer it took, the more she felt the eyes of her classmates on her. 

“The human ability to walk upright.”

“Very good!” Mr. Nguyen said, even as the other students began whispering among themselves. “Most don’t consider human beings and their evolution when I ask that question. Now…”

Soledad’s eyes fell to her notebook as Mr. Nguyen continued. She jumped when a gentle finger tapped her on the shoulder. She turned sharply, her eyes landing on Vienna’s sunshine smile.

“That was really smart,” she whispered. “I was going to say something, like, a poison tree frog or something if I got called on. Or like, how a turtle got its shell to protect itself.” 

Soledad glanced up towards the front, noticing Mr. Nguyen had his back to the class. Quickly, she tore out a sheet of her notebook and scribbled a note. 

‘Actually, turtle shells initially evolved to help with digging. The enlarged ribs anchored the front legs of its ancestor, which was a burrower.’

Vienna made a little noise of understanding. She scribbled something on the page, passing it back. ‘That’s so cool!’ Next to her message was a little turtle doodle. Vienna made a face of realization and took the paper back. She scribbled something else before passing it back. 

‘Hey, let me see your schedule! If we have more classes together, I’ll show you where they are!’

Soledad shrugged, passing over her schedule. Vienna pulled out a pink highlighter, marking a few classes. She passed it back over, revealing that Soledad had all three of her gen eds with her, along with her fashion design class. About half her day was spent with Vienna. Made things convenient for the whole ‘not getting lost your first day’ thing. 

Towards the end of class, Vienna raised her hand, speaking before being called on. “Mr. Nguyen, may I leave early to help Soledad find her next class?”

Mr. Nguyen glanced at the clock before nodding. “Alright. Go ahead. Welcome to SM-SEA, Soledad.” 

Soledad smiled and nodded, scrambling to gather her things before Vienna walked out the door without her. Backpack over her shoulder and coat in her arms, she followed Vienna a few steps out the door before remembering her little voice box and doubling back to snatch it off the table, keeping her head down as she felt the eyes of the other students on her. 

Vienna stood waiting for her out in the hall, her smile a seemingly permanent feature on her face. Soledad wondered what the opposite of Resting Bitch Face was called, because Vienna had it. 

Resting Nice Lady Face? No. That didn’t have the same ring to it.

“Lemme see your schedule again?” Vienna asked, leaning over Soledad’s shoulder to see the paper. “Okay, you’ve got Short Stories and Novellas next. That’s on the seventh floor. Follow me, I’ll show you where the good elevator is.”

‘How many floors does this school have?’ Soledad signed, forgetting that Vienna likely didn’t know what she was saying until she’d already said it. 

“Okay, I’ll be honest: I don’t know exactly what you said,” Vienna admitted. “But most people are like ‘how many floors does this school have’ when I mention anything above the third floor. Was that your question?”

‘Yes,’ Soledad signed, nodding her head.

“That must have been yes! Okay. Good to know. Anyway, this building has like, fifteen floors. But there aren’t any classes above the tenth floor. It’s all offices from that point. Oh! And the cafeteria entrance is on the first floor, but there’s two levels of seating. Oh oh! And there’s a small cafe on the tenth floor that has a smaller selection, in case your classroom is too far from the first floor. Oh oh oh! And the culinary arts students have a food truck that’s in the courtyard if you want to try that out. They change the menu every month.” 

That was a lot of food. Soledad quickly pulled out her voicebox and typed out a question.

“Is the food expensive?”

“Oh, no. Your meals are covered by tuition!” Vienna insisted. “You can eat as much as you want!”

That...filled Soledad with way more relief than she expected. The edges of her vision started to blur, and she quickly rubbed at the tears as they gathered in the corners of her eyes. She definitely didn’t want to cry in front of this girl. Not on the first day.

Vienna reached out and squeezed her arm. “Hey. It’s okay. Cry all you want; I won’t judge you. I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like you’ve been through a lot.”

‘I’m fine,’ Soledad signed, unable to see her keyboard to type out a message on her voicebox. ‘Thank you.’ 

“I know that one! From Blue’s Clues,” Vienna said cheerfully. “Do you need a moment?”

Soledad shook her head, taking a few deep breaths to calm her down. ‘I’m fine.’

Vienna dug around in her bag a moment, pulling out a bottle of something. “Here! Take some of this and put it on your hands. It’s aromatherapy lotion! It’s supposed to make you happy. Honestly, I just like the scent, but I think you could use some.” 

Soledad tucked her voicebox into her pocket, holding out her hands. Vienna gave her a genius dollop, which did smell very nice. She hadn’t realized it, really, but her hands had gotten really dry in the cold. She brought her hands up to her face after rubbing the lotion into her skin, inhaling the bright scent of citrus and ginger. Oddly enough, her tears did seem to clear up. 

She typed out a message. “It’s very weird how well that works.”

“Keep it then,” Vienna said, shoving the bottle into Soledad’s hands and making her fumble with both the lotion and her voicebox. “I think you need the pick-me-up more than I do. Now, c’mon! We only have a few minutes left before the bell, and I still have to show you to your next class!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up combining two parts since the first bit was so short. Hope y'all don't mind, I just really wanted a longer chapter. 
> 
> Vienna is mine and TheWritingDove's daughter. Be kind to her or suffer the consequences.
> 
> I also have a source for that bit about the turtle ancestors! [ Why Do Turtles Have Shells - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/the-turtle-shell-first-evolved-for-digging-not-defence/491087/)
> 
> In the original googledoc I wrote this on, I basically made it a footnote like one would on an essay lol. First time for everything. 
> 
> It also took me a while to figure out how to create the difference in font between Soledad's signing speech and her electronic voice box. I'm glad I know now, though! Now I can recreate the effect from my googledoc! Let me know what y'all think in the comments! It always makes my day uwu


	5. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Soledad didn’t see Vienna again until lunch time a few hours later. The other girl was waiting at the door of the cafeteria for her. Soledad wondered if she was like this with everyone, or if Soledad had done something in particular to catch her eye. Other than crying and not being able to speak, that is. 

“Hi, Soledad!” Vienna greeted cheerfully, radiating positivity like a supernova. Soledad vaguely worried that being around that amount of sunshiney sweetness would lead her to being blind as well as mute. “I hope you don’t mind me waiting for you. I wanted to make sure you had like, someone to sit with for lunch, ya know?” 

‘Thank you,’ Soledad signed. 

“No problem!” Vienna said. She wrapped an arm around Soledad’s, linking their elbows. “C’mon! We’ve got a lot of good stuff in here.” 

They certainly did have a lot of good stuff: Greek, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, and more. Soledad felt spoiled for choice, and more than a bit overwhelmed. She stood in the middle of the cafeteria, staring at the line of food stalls, unable to decide on anything.

“So,” Vienna said, “know what you want?”

Soledad shook her head. “What about you?”

Vienna hummed thoughtfully, tapping her chin with a finely manicured finger. “How about Mexican? They have tamales at this time of year and they’re devine!” 

Oh. Soledad hadn’t eaten tamales in what felt like years. Not since her grandmother on her father’s side passed. She’d probably cry if they tasted anywhere near as good, but that was a risk she was willing to take. She nodded emphatically, and Vienna happily tugged her in the right direction. 

As they stood in line, Soledad typing up her order on her voicebox so it was ready, a blonde girl exited the Japanese line, pulling their attention. She towered over the other girls, and even a good majority of the boys were shorter than her. Her fierce expression was the direct opposite of Vienna’s sunshine visage. She walked with a grace Soledad didn’t know existed in people.

She had a mild heart attack when Vienna started waving at the blonde girl, calling out. “Autumn! Hey, Autumn! Come meet my new friend!” 

The blonde girl, Autumn if Vienna was to be believed, strode over, her food tray piled high with sushi and tempura. It looked like the amount of food she’d seen Mikey scarf down before: also known as too much goddamn food. 

“Hey, Vee,” Autumn greeted, her voice smooth and deep. Soledad decided that clearly everything about this girl was pretty. And it kind of wasn’t fair? But she also wasn’t mad about it?

“Hi, Autumn,” Vienna chirped. “This is my new friend, Soledad. She just started today!” 

Soledad waved shyly as Autumn’s sharp, cinnamon-colored gaze settled on her. 

Autumn gave her a nod. “Hey.”

“We’ll be over in a bit,” Vienna assured her. “Just gotta get us some food. Do you know where Alice is?”

Autumn shrugged. “Probably at our usual table already.”

“Great! See you both in a bit!”

Once Autumn was a good distance away, Soledad shot Vienna a panicked look. The other girl giggled, waving off her concern. “Oh, don’t worry. Autumn and Alice are super nice. They’re like, my best friends. I’m sure they’ll love you!” 

Soledad wasn’t so sure. And she still wasn’t so sure as she approached the table a few minutes later, her tray piled high with as many tamales as the lady running the stall would allow. Vienna greeted the two girls at the table warmly, as she was wont to do, setting her tray of tacos down at one of the empty seats. 

“Alice, this is Soledad,” Vienna introduced, waving Soledad closer. “She just started today.”

“Well, it’s nice to meetcha,” Alice said, her voice honey sweet with the hint of a country twang. 

Soledad set her tray down before waving hello. 

“What course are you in?” Alice asked politely. “I’m in music production. You see, my daddy runs Country Sky Records. And he says that performers come and go, but music producers will always be relevant.”

Soledad had no idea what Country Sky Records was, nor what Alice was talking about. 

“I dance,” Autumn said plainly. “And draw.” 

Well, at least that was more straightforward than Alice’s explanation. 

“The lady who does schedules asked me what art I wanted to pursue and then immediately tried to shove me in dance.”

Autumn and Alice blinked at the robotic voice that came out of Soledad’s voicebox. Alice made a small noise of surprise, while Autumn simply popped a piece of sushi in her mouth. 

“Yeah, Mrs. Hudson will do that,” Autumn said with a slight nod.

“One of her nephews is in the dance course,” Vienna said, leaning in to share the gossip. “Word is that he’s gay, but she won’t accept it. She keeps trying to shove all the pretty girls in dance in hopes one of them will ‘turn him straight’, you know?” 

“That’s stupid,” Autumn said bluntly.

“Very stupid,” Soledad concured. 

“What course did you actually end up in?” Alice asked, steering the conversation towards something more positive.

“Creative Writing.”

Alice beamed. “That sounds lovely. Do you like writing?”

Soledad shrugged. 

“Did you just choose it to get out of dance?” Vienna asked with a giggle.

Soledad nodded, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. She shot Autumn a slightly apologetic look. 

‘Sorry,’ she signed, mouthing the words just in case that helped. 

Autumn, mouth full of sushi, shrugged. She clearly didn’t care one way or another.

Vienna nudged Soledad slightly with her elbow, grinning excitedly. “You should teach us sign language! That way you don’t have to worry about that speaker thing.”

While Soledad appreciated Vienna’s enthusiasm, she was far from qualified to teach sign language. She didn’t even have a full vocabulary herself. Lord knows she’d never be able to talk about things like biology or algebra in sign, at least not until she was long out of high school. The curse of learning languages late in life, she supposed. 

“I’m not really qualified to teach. But there’s lots of resources online.”

“Well, we’ll figure it out then, won’t we?” Vienna shot Autumn and Alice a grin. 

“Sure,” Autumn agreed easily around a mouthful of tempura eggplant. 

Alice nodded. “It sounds fun! Besides, then we can have secret conversations! Like spies! Or ninja!” 

Soledad choked on her tamale when Alice mentioned ninja, panic spiking momentarily in her gut. She coughed painfully, gulping down water to save her poor throat. It was stupid to panic over a throw away comment like that. There was no way Alice knew about the turtles. That’d be way too crazy of a coincidence.

By the end of the hour-long lunch period, Soledad decided she liked these girls. They made sure to pause the conversation when they saw Soledad typing to make sure her words were heard, and, other than that brief mention of Mrs. Hudson, none of them seemed to have a bad word to say about anyone. Vienna seemed to know everyone who passed by and made sure to greet them if she saw them and introduced Soledad to every single one of them. Alice was sweet and a little clumsy -- Soledad and the others had to help her free when her long hair got caught on a screw or something at the table -- but she had a good attitude about it. Autumn was quiet and blunt, but neither of those things made her harsh. In fact, she could be rather funny. 

Vienna joined her for class once more on her own -- the History of Design class -- and all four of them managed to have World History together at the end of the day. Soledad was surprised how well the day went. She probably had more friends after one day at this hoity-toity art school than she had after four months in Bridgeport. 

She was weirdly excited to tell the turtles. 

“Soledad!” Vienna shouted after her as she made her way out the main doors. “Where do you live? I can have my driver drop you off.”

Driver? Vienna had her own chauffeur? She really was hanging out with some fucking rich kids. How exactly did she explain to her new friend that she didn’t actually know where she lived because it was way below ground and there weren’t any street signs? She could potentially have Vienna drop her off at April’s place...if she knew where April lived. April had come to get her this morning in the sewer. 

“Where do you live? I don’t want to make you go out of your way.”

“You’re not making me go out of my way,” Vienna insisted. “But I do live in Cobble Hill.”

Cobble Hill was one of those expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The type you heard about in drama shows about rich and powerful people. If someone wasn’t from Manhattan in one of those shows, they were likely from Cobble Hill. 

“Yeah, I’m in the Bronx. I don’t want to inconvenience you. Thank you, though.”

Vienna was about to open her mouth to argue, but Soledad was already making her way down the sidewalk at a brisk pace. Vienna frowned, wondering what that was all about. She turned and walked back towards the car lane, glancing over her shoulder frequently to watch Soledad. 

“What happened?” Alice asked. “I thought you were going to give Soledad a ride.”

“She refused it,” Vienna explained, still watching Soledad. “Do you think she’s embarrassed about where she lives?” 

“Maybe,” Autumn said, following Vienna’s line of sight. “She just passed the bus stop, though.” 

“She said she lived in the Bronx,” Vienna said. 

“Maybe she lied?” Alice suggested. “Maybe she lives closer but didn’t want you to waste the gas driving somewhere so close?”

The three hummed thoughtfully. 

“Want to follow her and find out?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Teenage Art School Ninja Girl Squad has assembled! If you'd like, you can get a feel for what they look like with [this art piece over on my tumblr!](https://thegreatestofgames.tumblr.com/post/634786520961859584/art-of-my-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtle-ocs-from)
> 
> Why yes, the colors of their drinks do mean something. Why do you ask? >:3c


	6. White Plains Road Line

Vienna and the others tossed their bags into the car and took off down the street on foot after Soledad. They had to make sure they stayed far enough behind her to not get noticed, but close enough behind to not lose her. Which, on streets as crowded as the ones in Manhattan, was a feat in and of itself. The Upper West Side was always busy anyway. 

They followed her along Central Park West towards 110th, watching her duck into the Cathedral Parkway station. They made their way after her, hopping on a B Line train on the northbound platform. They made sure not to get in the same car, since the line wasn’t absolutely packed at this time of day. 

“Where are we going?” Alice whispered, peering through the car windows at Soledad. 

“North,” Autumn said. “Towards the Bronx.”

“So she wasn’t lying,” Vienna murmured, crossing her arms thoughtfully. If that was the case, why was she so dodgy about accepting a ride home? Sure the Bronx was the opposite way of Brooklyn, but that wasn’t a big deal. 

They sat in silence as the train moved north, watching at each stop to see if Soledad left. The further they went, the more curious they became. Soledad didn’t talk much about herself. Well, technically she didn’t talk at all, but the point stood. All Vienna, Alice, and Autumn knew was that she couldn’t speak, was in the creative writing course, and supposedly lived somewhere in the Bronx. Sure, that was quite a bit to learn in one day, but Soledad was only in creative writing because she didn’t want to get shoved into dance. As far as they knew, she didn’t have a talent for writing, or even a passion for it. 

Why was she at the SM-SEA if she didn’t love her art? 

Soledad got off at the 182nd Street platform. She stood to the side, waiting for the platform to clear off a bit. Then, after the train left, she hopped off the platform and onto the tracks. She had to be quick, the next train came in about ten minutes. 

Donnie and April had shown her this secret entrance to the sewers the day before. It was the closest to the lair itself, and also the most convenient to getting to and from school. She just had to find it before another train came through and squicked her against the brick. Ten minutes should be plenty of time, at least according to Donnie, but he knew this place better than Soledad did. 

She ran her hand along the brick wall of the subway tunnel, unable to see much in the dark. She had no light source other than the distant light of the platform, not even her phone. Donnie still hadn’t managed to find time to remove the tracking device yet. 

A few minutes in, and Soledad found it: a brick with the character for family carved into it. It wasn’t that brick but the one just to the…

Soledad pushed on the brick just up and to the left of the carving, which caved under the pressure. As it did, the wall beside her slid away, opening up a tunnel deeper into the ground. Soledad supposed she could have probably entered the sewers the way most people did, but the turtle way was just so much cooler. 

Autumn and friends dove into the open wall just as it was about to close.They found themselves in a dimly lit tunnel that had to be from way before the subway existed. They watched as Soledad continued on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. 

Just who the hell was this girl and what the fuck was going on? 

They followed her deeper into the tunnel, the air starting to fill with the faint smell of sewage. Eventually, they came out into a tunnel that looked like it had once been part of the sewers, but had been blocked off at some point, as it was completely dry. They continued to follow behind Soledad, wondering just where the hell she was going. 

“Soledad!”

Autumn grabbed Alice and Vienna by the back of their coats, pulling them back against a shadowy portion of tunnel wall at the sudden sound of a male voice. They watched as an anthropomorphic turtle came riding up to Soledad on a skateboard. The turtle was dressed in an orange headband that covered his eyes, and very little else. 

The weirdest part, at least in Vienna’s opinion, was that Soledad greeted the turtle warmly, her hands flying through some kind of greeting.

“Donnie told me to come meet you, to make sure you got back safe on your first day.”

Vienna and the others watched as Soledad walked off with the turtle, talking animatedly with it. 

“We should go,” Alice said in a hissed whisper.

“No, we need to find out what’s going on!” Vienna insisted. 

Autumn nodded, agreeing with Vienna. They’d come this far, they should see their investigation through to the end.

“We don’t even know how to get out even if we did turn back, anyway,” Vienna added. 

Alice sighed, but nodded. “Soledad is going to be so mad at us, though.”

Realistically, Autumn thought, they couldn’t actually know that. They’d known Soledad for all of maybe five hours at this point, maybe less. She could very well take it in stride. Though Autumn had to admit that was unlikely. 

Still, the three of them followed Soledad and her turtle friend down further into the sewers, the tunnel getting progressively wider until the whole space opened up into a tall, towering space in the center of many other branching tunnels. 

The space was bright and well lit, though Autumn couldn’t say it was well furnished. Most things looked worn or stained, like they’d been pulled from a salvage shop...or worse, a landfill. It smelled faintly of pizza grease, but not anything like sewage. Whatever this place was, it’d been closed off from most of the sewer system for years. Or, at least most people would think it was. 

Autumn snuck forward, keeping low to the ground, leaving Alice and Vienna in the tunnel behind her. She looked over the edge of the walkway, seeing Soledad in the middle of the room on the bottom floor, surrounded by three more anthropomorphic turtles in color-coded headbands. Her hands were flying as she conversed emphatically with a turtle in purple, who then translated for the rest of the group. Autumn leaned a little farther, trying to hear the conversation.

“She says she even made some friends,” the turtle in purple said, sounding excited. 

“That’s great, Soledad!” the turtle in orange from earlier cheered. 

Soledad signed something else, and when the turtle in purple translated, he sounded a bit sadder than he had before. “She says she’s made more friends in one day than she had the whole time she was in Bridgeport.” 

Autumn felt guilt settle deep in her stomach. They were the only friends Soledad had, and they were spying on her. All over her not wanting to accept a ride from people who had been utter strangers just hours before. She ducked back a bit, almost hiding in shame. 

“Hey, Soledad,” another turtle said, “Did one of these friends happen to be blonde?”

Autumn’s stomach filled with frosted dread. She could hear Vienna and Alice gasp behind her. Could she run? They were turtles, right? They had to be slow. But what would Soledad think? Whether or not the fact they followed her would make her hate them, running away after being caught was not a good look. 

Turned out that they didn’t have much of a choice either way. The turtles were definitely not slow. The turtles in blue and red were already up on the platform by the time Autumn stood up. She glanced back and forth between the two, eyes landing on the swords the blue one carried. She backed up towards Vienna and Alice, scowling at them.

“Touch them and I’ll kick your asses,” she hissed in warning. 

The turtle in purple that had been translating for Soledad appeared not long after Autumn issued her threat, carrying Soledad in his arms. A look of panic flashed over her face, followed quickly by shame. Autumn felt the guilt return, heavier than ever.

“Hey, let’s everybody calm down,” the turtle in orange that had met Soledad in the tunnels stepped between Autumn and the other turtles. “C’mon Leo, these girls clearly aren’t here to threaten us.” 

“You can’t know that Mikey,” the turtle in blue said. 

“We’re sorry!” Vienna said quickly, her voice wavering. “We were worried about Soledad.”

Soledad frowned, her expression painted with confusion. She pulled out her voice box from school, and quickly typed out a message.

“Why were you worried about me?”

“Oh, hey, that’s really neat,” the turtle in purple said. Soledad frowned, signing quickly. “Oh, yeah. I can see why you wouldn’t like it.”

“I’m sorry,” Vienna said again. “You just seemed so adamant about us not seeing where you lived, I was worried you were in a bad situation and didn’t want us to find out.” 

“So you followed me into that potentially bad situation?”

The robotic voice was monotone as ever, but Autumn could feel the confusion and anger in Soledad’s message. 

“It was stupid,” Alice murmured, so quiet that Autumn could barely hear her words over the pounding of her own heart in her ears. “And a breach of your trust. We’re sorry.”

“What trust? We just met today? There hasn’t been time to build trust.”

“I get that we’re strangers,” Autumn said, her hands clenched into fists by her sides. “But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t want to help you if we could.” 

Soledad stared them down, something akin to disbelief in her golden eyes. She tapped the turtle in purple on the shoulder, her hands flying through a few signs. The turtle set her down, and Soledad approached Autumn, Vienna, and Alice. Her face was set in something akin to determination, though her hands trembled as she typed out a particularly long message. Then, suddenly, she stopped. She looked up from the screen, meeting Autumn in the eye. 

And then she opened her mouth to speak.


	7. Brighton Beach

“A little over a year ago, my parents died in a car crash,” Soledad said, fighting back tears as her throat protested the use of her own voice. A hand drifted up to the scars on her neck as she continued. “I nearly lost my voice in the accident. As it is, I can’t speak without extreme pain. I spent many months in the hospital, relearning how to communicate without speaking, along with several other things.

“The state was unable to contact anyone in my family. Though...sometimes I can’t help but wonder if they tried very hard. Eventually, I was put in the foster system, and bounced from one house to another. Four months ago, I ended up in Bridgeport...with the Williamsons. Nancy and Robert were the worst of the worst. My other foster parents...they tried, I guess. Not very hard, though. Every little misstep or perceived slight had me packed up and tossed across the state. But the Williamsons...they were the worst. They belittled us constantly, called us fat or ugly or stupid any chance they got. They refused to spend more than the monthly stipend from the state on each of their foster kids. They had more than enough money to let any of us live comfortably, but they didn’t want to bother. They wouldn’t feed us breakfast, and starvation was a favorite punishment. I guess because it didn’t leave bruises or any other kind of proof. If we were hungry, it was because we were ‘growing kids’ and not because they refused to feed us. 

“I ran away last month on Halloween. I took the last bit of whatever they’d been hoarding of my monthly stipend and got the first train I could to New York. I thought, even if the city was harsh and the people didn’t give a damn about me, at least it would be better than the hell I was going through in Bridgeport. But then..”

Soledad felt the lump in her throat become too much. The tears spilled over the edges of her eyes. Some came from the pain speaking caused, others from a far deeper pain. 

“But the first person I met in New York cared enough to feed me just because I was hungry. I don’t get it? Almost every person I’ve met in this city cares for me just because I’m there? And I need help?”

Vienna rushed forward, wrapping her arms around Soledad’s shoulders and squeezing her tightly. Soledad didn’t know what to do. How long had it been since anyone hugged her like this? April had hugged her earlier that day but this felt...different. 

“I’m so sorry,” Vienna said, her voice wavering like she was holding back tears of her own. “I don’t know how you could have stood to live like that. No wonder you’re so shocked by simple kindness.” 

“But…” All eyes locked on Alice, making her hesitate. “But...how did you end up here? In the sewer? With...them?” 

Soledad made to speak once more, but a green hand landed on her shoulder. She glanced over to see Donatello step forward, taking over from here. Soledad couldn’t help but be grateful. Her throat was killing her; it felt like she’d swallowed a million tiny glass shards. That was the most she’d spoken aloud in what must have been nearly a year. 

Unsure what to do, she reached up to rest her hands on Vienna’s shoulders. It seemed the other girl wasn’t about to let her go anytime soon.

“On the night Soledad arrived in New York, she was ambushed by members of the Foot Clan,” Donatello explained. “They’re a criminal organization with roots in Feudal Japanese ninja clans. We managed to rescue Soledad just in time, and we brought her down here to our lair to keep her safe.”

“Can’t say ‘Foot Clan’ sounds very Japanese,” Autumn said with a slight smirk, making Michelangelo chuckle at her dryly delivered joke. “But continue.” 

“She’s been staying with us since,” Donatello said. “Our human friend, April, managed to get her enrolled at your school. And that’s basically the end of the story. Well, until you three followed her back, that is.” 

“I can understand why she’d choose the SM-SEA,” Vienna admitted, finally pulling away from Soledad. “They’re very good at keeping their mouths shut if you wave enough money in their face...or enough good publicity.”

“They do love their charity scholarships,” Alice agreed.

“So. Let me see if I got this straight,” Autumn said. “You ran away from a shitty foster situation, made your way to NYC where you got assaulted by ninja, then rescued by mutant ninja turtles, and managed to get yourself enrolled in one of the fanciest schools in the city because somehow you knew they wouldn’t ask too many questions. Do I got that right?”

‘I’m also going to be living in the sewers for the next two years,’ Soledad signed. 

Donatello translated, and Autumn shrugged. “Beats paying rent, I guess.” 

“But,” Alice interrupted, “The school still had to get your records from your old school. And you’ve been missing for at least a week. They know you’re in New York. And they know you’re going to SM-SEA. They can find you.” 

“We were afraid of that,” Donatello admitted. “We’re hoping that the school will protect her.”

“They might,” Autumn agreed. “But she can’t stay at the school forever.”

“Which is why we are training her.” Soledad’s head snapped in the direction of Splinter’s voice as it came up the ramp. Had he been listening in the whole time? Quite possibly, he was a ninja after all. 

‘I never agreed to that!’ Soledad signed. 

“Perhaps not,” Splinter said firmly. “But I have deemed it necessary for you. Your friend is right, you cannot stay in the school forever, and we cannot protect you in the daylight.” 

“You can’t,” Autumn said. “But we can.” 

Vienna gasped, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. “Are you saying we should train to be ninja? That sounds so cool! Yeah! Let’s train to be ninja!” 

‘Wait a minute!’ Soledad signed, her movements giving the impression she’d be yelling if she could.

“I don’t know how well I’ll do,” Alice added, “but I’ll give it a shot.” 

“Hold the fuck up,” Raph said. “Pops never said anything about you three.”

“If you can’t always be there to protect Soledad, then you can’t complain when someone else wants to step up,” Autumn said sternly, her voice rising only slightly in volume.

“They already know we’re here,” Mikey argued. “We might as well let them step up to help Soledad, too.”

“It’s dangerous enough that Soledad is leaving and coming back from the lair every day,” Leonardo reminded them. “Adding three more girls to the party makes it really obvious something is going on down here. We don’t want unnecessary attention.”

‘You guys literally go up to the streets almost every night to play superhero,’ Soledad signed harshly. ‘And somehow I’m the problem?’

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Leo said, backpedalling. 

“I mean. If we can’t come down here every day, you guys can come up to my place,” Vienna offered. “My mom is like, never home during the week. And sometimes she’s gone for months at a time.”

‘What about your driver?’ Soledad asked.

Vienna shrugged. “He lives in the basement suite. You can’t even get into the main house from there.”

“Same with my parents,” Alice said. “They’re gone for weeks at a time to Nashville or Los Angeles. You could all come to my place. We have a maid, but she has her own apartment and doesn’t come in the afternoons.” 

“And I live by myself,” Autumn said, earning her a look of surprise from Soledad. “Hey, I had to stay for school, but that wasn’t going to stop my parents from bouncing around the country doing their real estate development thing. They have their ‘summer homes’ and I have my luxury penthouse in Manhattan.” 

“The point is, we can work with each other to keep Soledad safe,” Vienna insisted. “Plus, like, I just really wanna learn how to be a ninja.” 

‘You guys literally met me today!’ Soledad signed, disbelief evident on her face. ‘I don’t understand why you’re putting yourselves at risk for me.’

“Hey, I have legit pretended to be best friends with random college girls to get them away from creeps.” Vienna grinned, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “This isn’t that different.” 

Soledad felt like she should argue that it was very different, but she doubted they’d listen. There was something to be said about the stubbornness of New Yorkers. 

Splinter grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “Well then. We shall begin immediately.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you know the full story of Soledad's tragic past. While she hasn't totally escaped it yet, thanks to her new friends it looks like she'll have a brighter future :)
> 
> And thus, the teenage art school ninja girl squad is formed~


	8. Chelsea Market

“You know, Soledad,” Vienna said during lunch the next day, “Do you have any clothes to work out in? For…” She lowered her voice to an almost comical whisper. “Training.”

Soledad, as a matter of fact, did not have any work out clothes. She barely had room in her backpack to pack three days worth of clothes. She’d been less worried about clothes than she had been about things like toiletries and the money. Plus, the gym clothes she had had her old school’s name on them. She definitely didn’t want to bring those along.

Thus, Soledad shook her head. 

Vienna’s eyes lit up. “Then we’re taking you shopping after school today!” 

Soledad flailed, scrambling to grab her voicebox to voice her adamant refusal, almost dropping the thing in the process. “But I don’t have any money. And even if I did, it wouldn’t be enough to buy anything at the places you shop.”

“Don’t worry about cost,” Vienna insisted, patting Soledad’s shoulder. “Because me and my mama’s unlimited platinum credit card will take care of everything.”

That left a sour taste in Soledad’s mouth. She didn’t want Vienna to feel like she needed to spend money on her. Beyond that, it was embarrassing to need your friends to buy anything for you. Sure, Soledad did have some money, but it was about 500 dollars and needed to be enough to take care of her for the next two years. Which, no matter where you lived, 500 dollars was not enough to live on for any extended amount of time. 

So even if she really didn’t want Vienna to buy her things, she really had no choice. 

“Hey.” Soledad glanced up to see Autumn leveling her with a serious look. “We’re not buying things to hold it over your head. We’re buying you stuff because you need it, and we want to help. We can’t fight off bitches yet, so let us do what we can to help. ‘Kay?” 

Soledad nodded, but she still felt like she’d eaten something rotten. 

After school, Vienna practically shoved Soledad into the back of her town car along with Alice and Autumn. She mentioned some neighborhood that Soledad couldn’t quite catch to the driver before flopping into her own seat next to Alice. Soledad hugged her backpack tight to her chest, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. 

She wouldn’t think that Vienna and the others would take advantage of her by dangling things over her head. But she’d also learned that people can turn really nasty really fast. She’d met too many nice people since coming to New York. She’d have to run into some awful ones by now. Right? 

“Oh, you know what we should do?” Alice said. “We should exchange numbers so we can text if we get separated while shopping.”

Soledad grimaced, pulling out her voicebox. “I can’t. Foster parents gave me a phone with a tracker. If I turn it on, the tracker starts up.”

Vienna inhaled sharply, her face taking on a pinched look. “Okay. I’m not down with that kind of bullshit.”

Soledad blinked, shocked by Vienna’s sudden shift in mood. Previously, she’d just been sad or upset by the things Nancy and Robert had done. This time, she seemed well and truly mad.

“Do you have the phone on you?” Vienna asked.

Soledad nodded, pulling the phone out of her backpack. She didn’t like leaving it anywhere in case someone picked it up and turned it on. And she didn’t trust Donnie to not try and take it apart and start it up just to see how it ticks.

“Good.” Vienna gave her a firm nod. “We’re getting rid of that thing right now.” 

The driver let them out in some upscale shopping district that Soledad would never have even considered stepping foot in before. The first place the girls dragged her to was the Apple Store. The old phone Nancy and Robert had given her was an iPhone that was locked into a family account with a lot of restrictions. Soledad couldn’t take any apps off and couldn’t put any on either. Not without the password or alerting Nancy and Robert to the fact she was tampering with her phone. 

Autumn snatched her phone out of her hands and immediately handed it over to one of the employees. “She’ll be trading this in for a newer model.” 

“She’ll also need a laptop,” Alice added. “For her school work.” 

“And a desktop,” Vienna insisted. “For home.”

Soledad’s eyes went wide as the girls listed off the things she’d ‘need’. She immediately went for her voicebox. “Wait! I don’t even have a phone plan! Or a desk!”

“You can be on my phone plan,” Autumn said, waving her off. “My parents don’t give a shit.” 

“And I’m sure the boys can get you a desk,” Alice said. “And if not, we can buy you one.” 

Soledad felt like she was about to cry out of frustration. This was too much! The clothes were one thing. Hell, she could even accept them buying her a phone. But the computers and furniture were too much!

“Stop buying me things!”

Autumn looked her dead in the eye. “No.” 

“Soledad, our families have more money than they know what to do with,” Vienna said, laying a reassuring hand on Soledad’s shoulder. “Let us use it to help you.” 

Soledad didn’t want this help. She didn’t even want the girls to do ninja training for her. She felt...pitied. And that just felt demeaning. Maybe it was because her self-esteem was just...completely shot by her various foster parents, Soledad couldn’t really know for sure. Like, it was one thing for the turtles to give her a place to stay. That she absolutely could not afford on her own. But Clothes? A Phone? She felt like she should be able to get that for herself. But she couldn’t.

That sour taste was back in her mouth. 

She was handed a brand spanking new iPhone, no questions asked. And then a bag was brought out with her new laptop and desktop. It was heavy, kind of like that gross, nauseous feeling in her stomach, and the girls immediately shoved the bag into the trunk of Vienna’s town car. 

Without giving her so much as a moment to process the initial giant purchase, Vienna and Alice were dragging her down the street. She shot Autumn a pleading look, but Autumn just smirked at her. 

“I don’t want anything fancy,” Soledad insisted. “Or name brand and stupid expensive.”

The three other girls shared knowing looks.

“Club Monaco it is, then,” Alice declared, shepherding Soledad up the street. 

Club Monaco, despite the girls insistence, was also pretty expensive. Soledad paled when she saw the price tag on the first pair of jeans that claimed they were worth over a hundred dollars. Then again, just today Vienna had brought a Burberry purse to school. Compared to that, the hundred-dollar jeans weren’t too bad. 

Fucking New York and it’s expensive-ass everything. 

“I don’t need this much,” Soledad said every time the girls added something else to the pile of clothes they were insisting on buying her. And this didn’t even include the fitness clothing they went on this whole expedition for in the first place. 

“Nonsense! Clothes will get worn out if you wear them too often! You need at least a month’s worth of clothes,” Vienna insisted.

Or, Soledad thought sourly, you could just buy one of the more durable brands that don’t fall apart if you wash them on the wrong speed one time. 

Ugh, no. Soledad knew that was the wrong mindset to take. These girls were her friends, and they were trying to be generous. She should be thankful. She hated that all she felt was uncomfortable and bitter. 

“Hey.” Soledad looked up to see Autumn leveling her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher. “You okay?”

“It’s complicated.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

She didn’t really, but it would probably be better for her if she did. She didn’t want the girls to get mad at her for being upset with them, though. 

“I feel bad that you are buying all this stuff for me,” she explained as best she could using the voicebox’s limits. “I feel like I should be able to buy this stuff for myself, but I can’t. And I feel like I’m being pitied, and that makes me feel gross. I know I should be grateful, but it’s hard.”

Autumn’s warm hand settled on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Hey. I get it. Asking for help is hard. And it feels bad when folks give you help when you didn’t want it, even if you know you need it. We know you’re in a bad spot, but we don’t pity you. We do this because we want to, not because we feel like we need to. Get it?”

“Sort of? But also not really.” Soledad sighed and shook her head. “It’s just something I’ll have to learn to deal with. I’ll be fine.”

Autumn eyed her, clearly not taking her word for it. “Alright. But if you can’t deal with it, you talk about it to us. Got it?” 

Soledad nodded. 

“Good.” 

It took a great deal of effort to get all the bags down into the lair. More effort than was probably necessary, but that’s what happens when your overly enthusiastic friends buy you a month’s worth of clothing along with two whole-ass computers. The turtles stared in awe at the parade of bags the four girls brought in through the subway tunnels.

“Where have you been?” Raphael demanded. “And what’s all that shit?”

“Clothes!” Vienna shouted down. “Soledad needed a wardrobe! So we took her shopping.”

Soledad shrugged helplessly as she hauled the Apple shopping bag into her room. It didn’t take long for curiosity to pull the turtles up to her room, hesitating right on the threshold. Leo had been the only one in Soledad’s room, and that was just to put up the hammock. 

‘Donnie,’ Soledad signed, ‘Can you help me with my phone and computers?’

“Phone?” Donnie asked, a bit of excitement creeping into his voice. “Computers?”

“We bought Soledad a new phone,” Alice said with a smile as she hung up some of Soledad’s clothes on the various pipes along her ceiling and walls. “Since her foster parents had a tracker on hers.”

“And then we figured she’d also need a laptop for school,” Vienna explained. “And at that point, the desktop just made sense. You know. Round out the collection.” 

“And yet, somehow we made it out of the store without an iPad,” Autumn joked, only the barest hint of humor in her voice. Still, it got Mikey chuckling. 

Now that Soledad thought about it, Autumn’s other barely-there joke from the other day got Mikey laughing too. Huh. Interesting.

‘I don’t have the money for a phone plan,’ Soledad signed to Donnie. ‘Autumn was going to put me on hers.’

“No need!” Donnie insisted. “I can just put in one of my Shell Cell sim cards. That way, no one has to pay for a phone plan.” 

Innocently, Alice asked, “Isn’t that stealing?”

Soledad and Donnie leveled her with a look of disbelief.

“I live in a sewer.”

“Oh!” Alice’s cheeks turned red as her faux pas became evident to her. “Right. Nevermind then.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Raph said with a shrug. “We get you hoity-toity uptown girls are sheltered as hell.” 

“I live in Brooklyn,” Vienna corrected.

“Yeah, Cobble Hill,” Autumn teased. 

“That’s not uptown!” 

“It ain’t downtown, either!” Raph argued. 

Soledad shot Donnie an incredulous look. ‘Is this really happening?’

Donatello shrugged. “Some people are very particular about those kinds of things. I don’t mind one way or the other. Since, you know, I live in a sewer.” 

‘Honestly, all this has done is put the Uptown Girl song in my head.’

“The what song?” 

‘Uptown Girl,’ Soledad signed again. Donnie continued to stare at her blankly. ‘Have you never heard Uptown Girl?’

“I don’t think so.” 

Soledad pulled out her voicebox. “Alice.”

Alice, who was happily continuing her work hanging up Soledad’s new clothes, turned at the sound of her name. “Yes?”

“Can you play Uptown Girl on your phone? Donnie’s never heard it.”

“Maybe? I suppose it depends on the signal down here.” Alice pulled out her phone, finding herself immediately surprised. “Oh! Will you look at that? Full bars.” 

The argument between Vienna, Autumn, and Raph (who had even pulled Mikey and Leo into the argument at this point) stopped suddenly as the first few bars started playing out of the tiny speakers of Alice’s phone. 

“Oh! I know this song!” Vienna squealed. “Uptown girl, she’s been living in her uptown world~” 

Suddenly the sewer was filled with the sound of teenage girls singing along to a song from more than 30 years ago. And Soledad felt the best she had in weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello! That's right, I've got two different TMNT projects going at the same time. Can you tell what my current media obsession is? lol Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Thanks for reading :D


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